Exclusive interview with author Catherine Lowell and a review of her book about a girl studying at Oxford who must solve a Brontë family mystery
Rating: 3 Stars
“It’s been fun seeing just how fiercely the Brontës are loved, and how alive their legacy is,” says The Madwoman Upstairs author Catherine Lowell. “During conversations about this book, I’ve learned that people seem to relate to one Brontë in particular. It’s as if identifying your inner Brontë is a form of personality test…I’m an Emily.”
The Brontë sisters, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, were a nineteenth-century literary family associated with the village of Haworth in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Charlotte’s Jane Eyre, Emily’s Wuthering Heights, and Anne’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, all became recognized as literary masterpieces. For their passion, their stories attracted attention and even censure when published, in particular Wuthering Heights, which explored the hypocrisy of Victorian morals. One Victorian critic described the book as, “vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors.”
The Madwoman Upstairs is a modern story with an intriguing Gothic twist. Set in Oxford, Lowell’s story mixes romance, history and mystery in a wonderful tale. A girl, the last descendant of the Brontë family, encounters all the twists and turns that life can throw at her while seeking the legacy that her father left. Sometimes Lowell gives too much information, instead of letting the reader figure it out. If you are a fan of the Brontës you will enjoy this romp through their lives.
Samantha Whipple, the last Brontë descendant, was home-taught by her late eccentric father. There is speculation that there is a hidden manuscript. She receives a box with a bookmark. It reminds her of a game her father played with her as a child, leaving her clues. Books she thought lost in a fire start appearing in her room. She has no time for games, she has classes to attend. Her professor at Oxford, James Oliver, is younger than other professors and constantly challenging her about literature. Can Sam finish her first year and solve the family mystery?
“The idea first took root in college, when I was trying to internally justify choosing to study English,” says Lowell. “I remember thinking though all the practical uses of an English degree. Books generally teach extremely valuable but vague life skills…like empathy. But what are the real-world problem-solving skills you can learn from literature? This became a fun thought experiment. How would an engineer, for example, analyze a novel? Then, I studied at Oxford for a term, where I had terrible insomnia. The first chapter was borne out of hours bored and awake.”
“While I had always loved the Brontë novels, my research left me with a deep respect for the authors,” says Lowell. “They were extraordinarily brave women, who wrote their novels during a time when writing as a woman was a form of social suicide. My research also showed me a very human portrait of three now larger-than-life authors. I had always loved their books as a kid, and became increasingly interested in the underdog, Anne, a bit of whom I believe lives in all of us.”
This is Lowell’s first novel. “Growing up, I wrote fractured fairy tales featuring burly princesses and a hungry chipmunk named Francine,” says Lowell.
Lowell says she reread all her old copies of Brontë novels. She researched lives of the Brontës at libraries. The original home of the Brontës, the parsonage at Haworth in Yorkshire, is now the Brontë Parsonage Museum with hundreds of thousands of visitors yearly.
Lowell is currently writing her second novel. She is based in New York City and was born in California. She doesn’t have a website yet, but says it’s coming soon. She has upcoming book events on the East and West Coasts.
The Madwoman Upstairs: A Novel by Catherine Lowell. Hardcover: 352 pages, Publisher: Touchstone (March 1, 2016), Language: English, ISBN-13: 978-1501124211 $ 25.99.
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