Charlotte Brontë's Life Through Clothes
— (title as given in episode; subtitle not separately stated in transcript)
Book •
Eleanor Houghton's 'Charlotte Brontë's Life Through Clothes' is an innovative biography that uses the novelist's surviving garments as primary evidence to reinterpret her life and work.
Drawing on a large archive of over 150 garments, Houghton combines close material study, scientific fibre analysis, archival research, and original drawings to reveal new insights into Charlotte's appearance, habits, and social world.
The book reconsiders myths about Brontë, illuminates the time and skill clothing demanded of Victorian women, and connects garments to scenes in her novels.
Houghton also traces the afterlives of these items—how they were altered, passed on, dispersed, and mythologized—and shows how that changing provenance affected their meaning.
The work situates clothing as serious documentary evidence, reshaping biographical and literary readings of Charlotte Brontë.
Drawing on a large archive of over 150 garments, Houghton combines close material study, scientific fibre analysis, archival research, and original drawings to reveal new insights into Charlotte's appearance, habits, and social world.
The book reconsiders myths about Brontë, illuminates the time and skill clothing demanded of Victorian women, and connects garments to scenes in her novels.
Houghton also traces the afterlives of these items—how they were altered, passed on, dispersed, and mythologized—and shows how that changing provenance affected their meaning.
The work situates clothing as serious documentary evidence, reshaping biographical and literary readings of Charlotte Brontë.
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Introduced by the hosts as the guest's new book exploring Charlotte Brontë's life through her surviving clothing collection.
Eleanor Houghton, "Charlotte Brontë's Life in Clothes" (Bloomsbury 2026)
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Duncan McCargo
Alexis Wolf
Eleanor Houghton, "Charlotte Brontë's Life in Clothes" (Bloomsbury 2026)
