Name: The Madwoman Upstairs
Rating: 4 (20 reviews)
ISBN: 9781501124211

Catherine Lowell

"A debut novel about the last remaining descendant of the Brontees who discovers that her recently deceased father has left her a treasure hunt that may lead to the long-rumored secret literary estate"--

A Novel

The Madwoman Upstairs

Sahi K

The premise of the book looked exciting because it had three super interesting elements - Bronté sisters, the last living descendant of the Bronté family and a treasure hunt. It starts with Samantha Whipple, the last living descendant of the Bronté family joining Oxford Old College to study English Literature. Even though speculation is rife all over that she inherited the "Vast Bronté Estate" even though all she got was her father's bookmark and words that one day she would inherit the "Warnings of Experience". And then she starts receiving her father's copies of the Bronté books one by one. She also slowly starts falling in love with her tutor Orville.

And that's all I understood in the book. The whole treasure hunt plot is almost nonexistent. There is some discussion about different interpretations of the sisters' books, their semi-autobiographical nature and how much of their books impacted their lives. This is probably the only saving grace of the book. There was a lot of banter between Samantha and Orville but it will probably make more sense to students of English Literature. Which brings me to the worst part of the book - it's narrator Samantha. She hates her family legacy, the sisters, the course she has enrolled to study and pretty much everything else. She comes across as naive, confused, disrespectful and obsessive. It was very difficult to find anything likable about her.

Sometimes you want to complete books even though you don't like the characters because there is something inherently interesting; here, I couldn't wait for it to get over fast enough.

Tyler Rodrigues

Elena M.

Shannon Arputharaj

Mandi Jayne

Antonella Romani

Elizabeth Hisserich

Rachel Rozdzial

Alice Foster

Amy Soukup

Ashley Pennington

Samantha Whipple - a young American woman - is the last remaining descendent of the famous Brontë family, of 'Wuthering Heights' and 'Jane Eyre' fame. After losing her father, a brilliant author in his own right, Samantha travels to Oxford in search of a mysterious family inheritance, described to her in her father's will only as 'The Warnings of Experience'. While at Oxford, Samantha studies under Professor J. Timothy Orville III, a disarmingly handsome tutor who seems nothing but annoyed by her family heritage. With Orville as her tempestuous sidekick, Samantha sets out on a mission to piece together her family's history - which, it turns out, may also be literature's greatest buried secret.

The Madwoman Upstairs A Novel

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