Did Charlotte Brontë take opium? Why did the Reverend Brontë carry a loaded pistol? And what, precisely, does "wuthering" mean? From the bumps on Charlotte's head to the nefarious origins of Mr. Rochester's fortune, John Sutherland brings encyclopedic knowledge and dry wit to this idiosyncratic look at the world of the Brontës, a family that was brilliant, doomed, and endlessly interesting.