"Did Charlotte Brontë take opium? Did the Reverend Brontë carry a loaded pistol? What, precisely, does 'wuthering' mean? Distinguished literary critic John Sutherland takes an idiosyncratic look at the world of the Brontës, from the bumps on Charlotte's head to the nefarious origins of Mr Rochester's fortune, by way of astral telephony, letter-writing dogs, an exploding peat bog, and much, much more." -- Back cover.