Finola AustinCritiques

Like many fans of classic British literature, I knew of the Brontes, and I knew of the original Mrs. Robinson who spurned Branwell, causing him to spiral and bring all of his sisters down with him. Initially, I didn't pay the "other woman" much mind. After all, who was she compared to Charlotte, Emily, or Anne? She was probably bored, lonely, or both when she found an available younger man to give her attention. To me, that seemed pretty straightforward compared to the plights of the Bronte sisters. Well, Finola Austin set out to show readers like me why that way of thinking is a mistake by showing exactly who this woman was and why she matters in her own right.

Lydia's history, as she tells it, isn't romantic. Regardless of what Branwell tells her, she knows she's not a secret genius destined for fame or independence. She's wealthy but not wealthy enough to enjoy a varied society with lots of advantages. She dreams of a great romance but ends up marrying the first man who will have her, signing herself up for a long life with an over-bearing mother-in-law, a boring husband, and a brood of children she made in the quest to have the highly coveted son. She plays the piano well, is pretty in her forties, and is sociable. These are qualities she cultivated in herself because she was taught that was all that mattered. By today's standards, she's a terrible mother, but back then, she would've been par for the course: pragmatic to the point of hurtful, disinterested to the point of neglect, and yet still more involved than her husband, which she complains about bitterly. She's rarely likable. At times, she can be cruel and monstrous to those in her inner circle, so I can imagine a lot of readers taking issue with her. I wouldn't want to be friends with her personally, but that's not why I enjoyed the book.

Trapped in a marriage where she can't assert herself and stuck with the shallow rules society has dictated her, Lydia tries to navigate life in a way she thinks will yield results, and her struggle is palpable. She yearns for what everyone yearns for: to be loved and understood. Her affair with Branwell is her attempt at re-asserting control in her life. Readers who pick up the book are likely already familiar with the story and so know this won't end well, but the novel nevertheless reminds us it's not Lydia's fault Branwell is a drunken loser. Nor is it a woman's job to keep men from their vices. Branwell's downfall was the result of his own bad choices and the illness of addiction. Yet, these two latched onto each other, hoping they could be each other's salvation, but only Lydia realized their affair for what it was: an ill-judged fling that adds to the spice of life.

Her frustrations and her depression are so poignant that the story feels both modern and historical. You feel for Lydia because she's stuck, and as the book goes on, you're filled with a sense of doom because you know it likely won't get any better for her. Sometimes that's due to her own bad choices, but mostly it's because her options are so limited. It's not her fault she wasn't born to be a genius, so why should we readers penalize her for being unable to escape her life through invention? You can't help but hope it gets a little better for her or for her daughters, yet, she is one woman of millions in Victorian England but no less deserving of admiration or more deserving of scorn simply because she didn't write a seminal piece of literature.

For their part, the Bronte sisters of Anne and Charlotte do appear in the novel. Their characterizations from Lydia's perspective are interesting, even though I'm still coming away from the novel with my pre-conceived ideas about their characters in tact. Both are intelligent women who are also stuck in their circumstances, and they clearly resent Lydia for having more than them but doing less with it, which is a fair criticism. And so, Lydia is obsessed with their negative opinions of her. She finds them prudish and judgmental. Overall, she strives to be well-liked because it's all she has. She's a horrible person and rather pitiable, but above all, she is human, and that's why I loved the book. Lydia Robinson felt real and yet a figurehead for so many women of her time and who was cast as the villain in someone else's story.

Bronte's Misteress is perfect for every Bronte fan. The fatalism and dreariness of its landscape fits in perfectly with those other famous novels. Austin also seamlessly references Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and Agnes Grey, which makes it super fun and engaging to read. I highly recommend that lovers of tragic heroines, or women constrained by their circumstances, or the gloominess of the moors pick up this book. You will love it.

For full disclosure: I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway. Thank you very much for the reviewer's copy! I thoroughly enjoyed it!

"And this tutor, he-" He saved me and destroyed me all at once, taught me I could still feel so I could discover that I needed more than him.

That quote tells you much about the woman that Branwell Brontë destroyed himself over - Lydia Gisborne Robinson. This telling shows her moving from a cold and distant marriage into a fiery passion, the extravagant energy that exemplified everything that we know of Branwell's disposition. But Lydia was older and in a different place in her life. Having just lost her youngest child and her mother, she suffers the difficulties of her remaining children, who are all teenagers. With no one in the house who caters to her needs, she finds herself looking elsewhere. Will this new adoration, this exultation from a man not much older than her own children be enough to satisfy her vanity?
Though it is not actually confirmed if their relationship was actually physical, or simply emotional, we do know that after he was dismissed from the house, Branwell never recovered. Like many creatives he felt deeply and he loved wildly and he took to self-medicating in excess. Another sad end for another Brontë sibling.
If you enjoy the Brontë sisters' works then you might give this one a try. Austin sprinkles little homages here and there that will make you feel at home. I enjoyed the telling of the tale but it does not lead me to any good feelings for Lydia. I suppose I should read other material about her in order to form a balanced opinion. It does make me even more curious to visit the Parsonage someday and to see the family library, including those things written by Branwell.

1843. Mrs Lydia Robinson is returning to her home, Thorp Green Hall, after the funeral of her mother. But what is there for her, as a seemingly passionate Victorian wife in now a cold marriage. But on her arrival she finds that her husband has employed Branwell Bronte as tutor to their son.
I don't believe that you can like Lydia, but maybe understand her and her position, the constraints that ladies of the time lived by. This is Lydia's story from her point of view.
A well-written and interesting historical story.
An ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This isn't the usual sort of book that I read. But I'm trying to branch out and the premise sounded so interesting. I'm glad I decided to try something a little different. I thoroughly enjoyed this story!

Lydia Robinson has faced the recent death of her daughter and her mother. She's grieving and a very unhappy wife. Her mother in law is horrid....and her teenage daughters misbehave. Lydia wants something more in her life...and she finds just the thing with her son's tutor -- Bramwell Brontë. Bramwell's sister Anne is governess to Lydia's daughters.

But.....the problem is....Lydia is married. The servants see and whisper about all goings on in the house. She is 43 and Bramwell is 25. Not only that but Bramwell's sisters know what is going on...and Lydia is afraid they will reveal what they know about the affair.

Can this strong, outspoken woman weather the storms created by her passion for life, boredom with propriety and whispered gossip??

I couldn't help but feel sympathy for Lydia as I read this story. Women had very few choices in life at that time. She's stuck in her marriage....she's stuck in her societal role....and when she does try to find some passion in her life, she chooses the wrong person. Bramwell is creative and engaging, but unstable. Lydia has to make some rough decisions in order to have her entire life not implode.

Very interesting, darkly passionate and emotional book. It makes me wonder what the real Bramwell was actually like. He always seems to be portrayed as a drunk and a mentally unstable person. He definitely gets left in the shadows of his famous literary sisters.

I enjoyed this book! I look forward to more by this author!

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Atria Books. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**

I came to this novel for the Brontë connection, hoping for a really good historical fiction about real-life people. I got a powerful tour de force about the limited lives of even upper class British women in the mid 19th century.

This book is so well written. I have more highlighted passages on my Kindle for this one than for any other book I’ve read recently. Gorgeous and lush prose, obviously meticulously researched, fascinating and intoxicating. It was nearly impossible to put down once I got started—first because of the tension between Lydia Robinson and Branwell, later just to see what Lydia would do next.

Neither Lydia nor Branwell are very likable characters. Lydia Robinson is complex: lonely, sad, passionate, desperate, selfish, shallow… she made me so mad at some points in the story, but at other points I realized she’s very much a product of her time and place. She’s a smart, emotional woman who is oppressed and limited, judged and neglected. Branwell is really a secondary character, and that’s just fine—he’s the tortured, struggling soul that does sort of get chewed up and spit out by his Mrs. Robinson, but I love the way he’s written here. The slow building of the romantic tension between these two is palpable and their inevitable relationship is scorchingly hot.

Despite being the titular mistress, Lydia is much more than an older, married woman dallying with a younger, freer artistic type. She’s a wife who very much loved her early relationship with her husband, is mourning the loss of a young child and her own mother, has a complicated relationship with her teenaged daughters, and is dealing with her own aging and loss of relevance. I couldn’t stand her, I was rooting for her, I wanted her to get on with her affair, I wanted her to go to her husband, I wanted her to be a better mother, I wanted her to find what she needed… and I mainly felt horrible for her and the limited options she had. Just listen to her:

‘It was tiring, always calculating how I might appear best, but what other options were available to me? If I had to tie myself to a mast—and I had to—it might as well be to the grandest, proudest ship.’

and…

‘He saved me and destroyed me all at once, taught me I could still feel so I could discover that I needed more than him.’

and especially:

‘There were women from here to England, crying over curtain fabric, scolding their children, and aching for change and love or, at least, excitement. And most, if not all, of them would be disappointed. Their fate and mine was too common to be the stuff of tragedy.’

I can’t finish this review without also mentioning how starstruck I was when the Brontë sisters were mentioned or appeared. Especially Charlotte, of course.

This book is an astoundingly good debut. I can’t wait to see what Finola Austin does next.

While I am a huge fan of Charlotte Bronte, I knew only the most basic facts about her brother Branwell prior to this novel. Anne Bronte, Charlotte and Branwell's youngest sister, was a governess to the Robinson family, and Lydia Robinson, the wife of Reverend Robinson and mother of the children Anne served as governess, embarked on an affair with Branwell Bronte, who was working a tutor to her son. The affair, of course, is debated by historians, but this novel presents a plausible course of events. Lydia, like many of the heroines of Bronte fiction, is a woman constrained by her era, passionate and yet limited in her choices. She has the affair partly because she is so unhappy in her marriage and surrounded by family members who question her decisions and treatment her emotions as something which should be medically treated. Lydia is not always likable, especially in the ways she treats her daughters, but she also manages to find her own path. Overall, I loved this book, flaws and all, and maybe just because it included the themes from some of my favorite Bronte novels.

3.5
The Bronte family history is filled with so much drama it would make a bingeable television mini-series. Charlotte, Emily and Anne are well known. Their only brother Branwell is not.

Branwell felt the loss of his mother and two older sisters keenly. Branwell and his younger sisters created an alternate reality, detailed in books and drawings. His father homeschooled him with a Classical education while his sisters went away to school.

Branwell was a product of the Romantic Era, and inspired by poets and painters, he hoped to make his mark as a poet or artist.

As too often happens to precocious geniuses, Branwell never achieved his best at anything. In fact, he failed in everything. His last years were spent in ill health, alcohol and drug addiction complicating his tuberculosis, despairing over unrequited love while his sisters cared for him. Charlotte Brontë wrote in a letter, 'the faculty of self-government is, I fear almost destroyed in him.'

Famously, Branwell painted a group portrait of his sisters and himself, then later painted out his image. That portrait inspired my Bronte Sisters quilt.

Branwell's last position was as a tutor for the family where his sister Anne was governess. Over those 30 months, Branwell and his charge's mother, Lydia Robinson, had a love affair. Her husband was sickly and she was a charming woman of 43. Branwell, like his famous sisters, was small, fair with red hair, a prominent nose on which sat spectacles--nothing like the typical romantic hero.

In her biography of Charlotte Bronte, Elizabeth Gaskill paints Mrs. Robinson as a wicked women. After her husband's death, she did not run to Branwell's arms. She married a wealthy man of 75. Whatever she may have felt for Branwell, money and a safe social status was more important. Branwell died heartbroken.

In Bronte's Mistress , Finola Austin imagines Mrs. Robinson telling the story of her love affair with Branwell.

In the novel, Lydia Robinson sought the attention and affection of the man she married and gloried in their early passionate affection. Throughout the novel, she still seeks his attention. Lydia struggles with aging, and worried about the loss of her beauty, she craves affirmation of her continued attractiveness.

To complicate her life, Lydia has contentious relationships with her teenage daughters and her overbearing mother-in-law.

Lydia can be cold and imperious toward her daughters. She married for love but does not countenance her daughters doing the same; she knows how unreliable love is, while money lasts.

Mr. Robinson treats governess Anne Bronte with dignity, but Lydia does not care for her. The feeling is mutual. Anne thinks her mistress is vain and shallow and ill-tempered.

When Mr. Robinson hires Anne's brother Branwell to tutor their son, Lydia notes his spirit, his intelligence, and his good looks. Attraction grows between them, and Branwell being a true Romantic, throws himself into the fire of love. Lydia revels in the attention, teaching her young lover how to please her.

Austin's portrait of Lydia Robinson is interesting and complex. Austin uses the character of Lydia Robinson to explore the constraints the Victorian Age placed on women, particularly their sexuality. In seeking their own destiny, the daughters show they share their mother's spirit if not her values.

Austin's portrayal of Branwell portrays his charms and his demons, and his inexperienced naivety. She incorporates his poetry into the novel. Lydia comes to realize that Branwell is weak, unreliable, and not as great a talent as he made out.

Austin's Lydia Robinson is not likeable, and neither is Branwell. Even Anne does not come across well. This might put some readers off. It is perhaps the downside of writing about real people.

Austin shows Anne incorporating her experiences into her novels, and imagines Lydia Robinson's second marriage as inspiration for Charlotte Bronte.

Austin's deeply flawed characters are desperate for love. In his time, Branwell's addictions would have been considered character flaws, weakness. And Lydia's sexual desire an aberration.

As someone who loves 19th c fiction and the Bronte's novels, I enjoyed Bronte's Mistress. I look forward to reading more by the author.

I received a free ebook from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.

I just wasn't into this book. It wasn't a BAD book. The characters (except kids) were well developed. The writing flowed... I never read any Bronte books. Maybe that was it.

The story is loosely based on the lives of the Brontes, especially Branwell and his affair with a married woman.

I think if you have an interest in the Brontes, or the life of a widow back then, you'll like this one.