The Bronte Sisters

The BBC presents full-cast dramatizations of the Bronte Sisters’ seven novels. Adapted for radio drama, this collection includes Agnes Grey and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte; Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte; and Jane Eyre, The Professor, Shirley, and Villette by Charlotte Bronte. Approximately 14 hours and 40 minutes on audio CDs.

Orphaned, cast off by her hardened aunt Mrs. Reed, and maltreated at Lowood School, Jane Eyre did not begin life with good prospects, but what she lacked in physical and material comforts, she made up for with a fervent and vigorous spirit, self-respect, and a will to make a life of her own. When she finds herself working for Mr. Rochester as the governess of his ward, Adele, it seems chance has meted "a measure of happiness" at last: only to have it seemingly all snatched away as mysteries surface and figures from the past reappear. 453 pages, softcover with deckled pages.

A brooding Yorkshire tale of a love that is stronger than death, the passion of Catherine and the foundling, Heathcliff is as wild as the moors surrounding their childhood home, Wuthering Heights. In this dark tale of love and loss, Catherine’s choice to marry within her social status torments Heathcliff and the consequences result in misery for each other and everyone around them. As Heathcliff's bitterness and vengeance grows and is visited upon the next generation, their innocent heirs must struggle to escape the legacy of the past. 344 pages, softcover.

Drawing on her own experiences, Anne Bronte wrote her first novel out of an urgent need to inform her contemporaries about the desperate position of unmarried, educated women driven to take up the only "respectable" career open to them--that of a governess. Struggling with the monstrous Bloomfield children and then disdained in the superior Murray household, Agnes Grey tells a story that is at once a compelling inside view of Victorian chauvinism and ruthless materialism. 272 pages, softcover.