REVIEWS: 'Charlotte Bronte: A Fiery Heart,' by Claire Harman, and 'In Farleigh Field,' by Rhys Bowen

By Claire Harman. (Vintage Books, 462 pages, $20.)

Readers who love "Jane Eyre" as an outstanding work of Victorian fiction will see in this book how close it comes to fact. Charlotte Brontë had no need to concoct scenes of a pestilential boardinghouse or the travails of a governess. She lived them. The main thing missing for her, it seems, is the happy ending.

Biographer Claire Harman uses new access to a trove of Brontë letters to illustrate the frustrations that stoked the groundbreaking literature of Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë in their bleak home on the Yorkshire moor.

Retreating from the world in failure to the parsonage occupied by their drunken brother and domineering father, the sisters turned their dining room into a hothouse of literary release: Charlotte at work on "Jane Eyre," Emily on "Wuthering Heights" and Anne on "Agnes Grey." All three novels were published in 1847 under the respective pseudonyms Currer Bell, Ellis Bell and Acton Bell, setting the British literary world abuzz. Little more than a year later, Emily and Anne were dead, and Charlotte was left to navigate her anonymous celebrity alone. A late marriage and real love delivered happiness at last, but only briefly.

Harman's gripping narrative, newly released in paperback, depicts incredible but true scenes in Brontë's life and allows us to "hear" the voice behind Jane Eyre in all her pain and passion.

Maureen McCarthy

By Rhys Bowen. (Lake Union, 378 pages, $24.95.)

"In Farleigh Field" is a pleasant, competent story about a pleasant, competent aristocratic family that is soldiering on during World War II. The plot includes elements that are well-traveled elsewhere but remain easy to take: envious siblings, aviators, spies, code-breakers, nasty Nazis and, of course, betrayal.

Author Rhys Bowen centers the narrative on two patriots, Lady Pamela Westerham and MI5 operative Ben Cresswell, who eventually are tasked with trying to find a traitor. Needless to say they take this responsibility, and each other, to heart.

This smoothly written book, which would be a great addition to summer vacations, is for those who prefer their thrillers mild, marvelous and very, very British.

BECKY WELTER