The lives of literary figures have always provided a source of fascination; the tragic life of Charlotte Bront is no different. In this interpretive critical biography, Helene Moglen "takes for granted earlier, exhaustive studies" done on Bront to produce an analysis that incorporates not only the facts of her life, but also their influence upon her works. Through her study, Moglen seeks to examine the two dimensions that are essential to any study of Bront the life she lived and the life she created within the pages of fiction.
By examining the paradoxical personal tragedy and artistic fulfillment that made up Charlotte Bront 's life, Helen Moglen shows the evolution of Bront 's feminism. Through Bront 's growth, Moglen then is able to "explore explicitly formations of the modern female psyche." Considered to be a major biography fusing together the making of literature and the formation of personality, Moglen offers a new critical insight into Bront 's struggle for self-definition and how it can be reflected through the lives of readers more than a century later.