Enhance Your Book Club

1. Read some of the Brontë sisters’ famous works, such as Jane Eyre, Agnes Grey, and Wuthering Heights. Did you notice any references to parts of these novels in Brontë’s Mistress? What were they? Was your opinion of the characters in Brontë’s Mistress affected by your reading of these famous works? Conversely, if you’ve already read works by the Brontës, was your perspective on their family changed by reading Brontë’s Mistress?
2. Read and reflect on other works where female figures from history or literature are cast as the main character—for example, The Paris Wife, Mrs. Poe, Loving Frank, and Z. Consider how the retelling of their stories gives voice to women whose history and perspectives are often glossed over in a telling of history and a literary canon written almost entirely by men.
3. You can find the fully designed book club kit at finolaaustin.com/book-clubs. In it, you can read Finola Austin’s travelogue of her visit to the grounds of Thorp Green Hall and see a map of the buildings mentioned in the novel.