Bradford Literature Festival

Bad Men and the Brontes

Edward Rochester and Fitzwilliam Darcy have long shared the trophy for literature’s best-loved and most aloof romantic hero. Generations of readers have fallen for these men, despite (or perhaps because of) their approaches to love and marriage, which are, at best, reserved and, at worst, cruel.

Almost two centuries later, are these two men still the gruff, brooding figures worthy of the heroines’s love, or do their surly personalities hint at something darker and more problematic?

Broadcaster Bidisha and narrative poet Andrew Mitchell join Yvette Huddlestone to discuss these two flawed, complex characters through the lens of today’s feminist landscape and explore their enduring appeal for modern readers.