This module will consider three texts by Austen and the Brontes. A wide variety of literary and historical contexts will be discussed: feminisms, colonialism, impact of war, the social status of the woman writer, representations of governesses, madness and mad women, rakes, foreigners and strangers, minds and bodies, heroes and heroines. We investigate the ways that the lives of the authors of these novels have been told and read as romances. Opportunities will be available to work on film versions. Work on any text by these authors is welcomed in class, coursework and in the examination.